Introduction Lore
The History of Pandora "People often speak of what Pandora was but never what it is or what it will be." The Beginning As long as the world has ever known Pandora, it has been regarded as the prize of the Earth rather than the beginning of the end. Not much is known of what this land was before it became riddled with powers unimaginable to man – that world has been destroyed. Put your mind to the past and imagine Pandora as it once was: the home of the heart and the land for the living. The name of this land as the ancients had called it is unknown to us now. We know that there were empires – forces greater than we could ever build today. Colonies of man stretched as far as the eye could see. They had wealth, they had power, and yet somehow they had peace. The world was a king’s place - not humble, but honest. But honor and pride was stripped from these great plains when the Calamity struck our homeland. The Calamity We call the event the Calamity – and there is no better name for at. An event so great that it rattled across the Great Plains and over the Eastern Seas. Who knows if it reached the fabled lands of the west – or if perhaps it followed those who attempted to flee there, none of whom were ever known to return. But what really was the Calamity? Many tell tales of its wonder as the righteous judgement upon the Earth. But there are creatures in this land – infused with its power – who have lived for thousands of years to tell the tale themselves. And they all say the same thing: The Calamity ended the world as we knew it and the world was born anew. Centuries ago on a midsummer’s day, the sky erupted in impossible color. Among the spectral anomaly, a single meteor fell silently from the heavens. The world paused for a moment as all eyes bore witness to the majesty of its descent. Some quaked with fear, certain that this would be the end – and they were right. The meteor stuck at heart of Pandora, cascading waves of power as far the eye could see. But the destructive nature of the meteor’s impact was trivial compared to what followed in its wake. The great meteor that fell that day is not want we call the Calamity. The meteor was simply the calm before the storm. What followed was the Calamity – an abrupt and destructive force that pieced the hearts of our people. Nobody knew what the Calamity was, but everyone knew its power. Across the lands, people began to feel the might of an invisible force. It flowed through everything – the very roots of the earth began to quake with power. There was an aroma in the air, and it consumed everyone weak enough not to ignore it. The Dark Ages Centuries ago, on that fabled midsummer’s day, humanity began to shift. There were those who were afraid of the power – and they were the lucky ones. Those who fled to the far reaches of the land – they were the strong ones. The only way the people had to defend against the Calamity was to resist the cruel temptation of its power. Those who did not fight, the weak, had their souls torn from their mortal bodies. The became known as the Sylvan. The power of magic changed them as it changed everything. They became twisted reflections of what they once used to be. They grew stronger and taller – their only drive was to spread the Calamity further. Those who survived the culling to fight against the Calamity called them monsters. They developed pale skin and glowing eyes – like a demon possessed by a divine power. The war they waged was forever known as the Thousand Year War. The Age of Magic After the Thousand Year War devastated the midlands, they Sylvan became content with their power and lived in the forests of the lands they had claimed. Nobody dare contested their power and instead retreated to the kingdoms of the far-lands where the reaches of the Calamity spread thin. Over the thousands of years of the Middle Ages, there was relative peace in the lands. There were factions of people who were corrupted by their obsessions to gain power from the Calamity. In the search for their powers, they found a force that no one expected: Magic. Magic was studied and used by those of free will and those of corrupted intent alike. It fundamentally stunted the ever-expanding use of technology. The world was no longer focused on creating machines – but instead the world wanted to create magic. But there was a reason for this peace. The Calamity would not simply allow humanity to obtain its power without having its way with the world. Those who had developed their magical powers became simultaneously and unequivocally possessed by the powers – causing them to turn on their own people. This disaster was known as the Great Collapse But not all were captured in the Calamity’s grasps. Mages who had studied magic with discipline rather than greed were powerful enough to reject the powers of the Calamity. These mages became humanity’s last hope. The power of magic – having grown through the years – was beyond that of steel. The only way to survive was to fight fire with fire. After nearly a hundred years of war during the Great Collapse that scarred the lands, the Mages of the Free performed the ultimate sacrifice in order to save our world; they unlocked the power to open a tear into the Netherworld. With the combined efforts of strong mages, they risked the safety of our world by creating a theoretical link between this dimension and the dimension of the demon. Defeating the corrupted mages was impossible, but forcing them through the rift was not. Thankfully, the dark forces of the nether did not enter our world through the tear. But to this day, many fear that the risk was not worth the cost that the Netherworld might return one day since they now know that our dimension exists. The Age of War The age we live in, the Age of War, was coined by the need for preparation. Twisted monsters created by the Calamity relentlessly attacked the Free People. Fortunately, the power of the free had grown strong and has since been able to defend against the forces. But while some may revel in the superficial peace, many prepare themselves for the worst – even the many Sylvan defectors who have broken free from the corruption of the Calamity after thousands of years of struggle. But there is something brewing in these lands. Not something good, but something evil. You can almost feel it in the darkest corners and the silent nights. Something comes for the land of the free – and it is our job to be ready to defend it when it does. Category:The Beginning